Creating and honing an passive income strategy is integral to the success of a small business, and it is certainly far more successful in our web-based world than the traditional, Outbound Marketing strategies of the past.
Increasing your websites quality traffic is absolutely possible by first developing a solid strategy. Here’s a fantastic example below of one of our clients successes with Inbound Marketing:
An increase in traffic is not the only thing you should be looking for with a solid Inbound Marketing strategy. You need quality traffic. The SEO client above saw an increase in sales by over 100%. Why the increase? The content compelled readers to action!
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing focuses on creating valuable content through SEO, social media, and well-written, relevant article content. It’s all about earning the attention of your customers, not buying it. In contrast to this, Outbound Marketing focuses on purchasing the attention of customers through direct paper mail, television advertisements, and other methods of traditional advertising.
Let’s Talk Strategy!
Forming an Inbound Marketing strategy is easier than you think. Below are 6 steps to get you started on attracting higher traffic, converting leads to sales, and creating a basis for which to improve your company’s sales. For best results, these steps should be conducted in longer research cycles. Therefore, we suggest 1 month periods be allotted for each step.
Month 1 – Start Building the Basics
Gather your team, and create a detailed action plan for identifying your Inbound Marketing goals (eg. increase traffic, improve sales by a certain percentage, etc.). For larger groups, a team should be formed with each person being assigned specific responsibilities as they pertain to the strategy. The tools for implementing this new strategy should be targeted. These tools may include a WordPress Blog housed within the company site that includes weekly or daily posts showcasing news and valuable content. If there is interest in creating regular podcasts, a visual dynamic could be incorporated into the website. Creativity is key, and it allows for both flexibility and innovation.
Social Media needs to be addressed in this step, as well. Create complete profiles in major social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. If your industry has a social media website of its own, be sure to create a profile there, as well.
A keyword assessment of your website is extremely important, and will play a big part in your site’s architectural remodeling. Once the keyword research is complete you can make those changes.
Month 2 – Develop a Content Strategy for Your Blog
First, decide how often you would like your blog to be updated. Based on that, begin forming an editorial schedule. The schedule should include live dates, titles, keywords, the author to whom the article is assigned, and any other notes specific to the release of the article. Each article should include a sales funnel – bringing interested customers face-to-face with your services and offers now that you have their attention. Think ahead by developing a plan for more detailed content that will engage your readers at least once or twice a month.
Month 3 – Start to Improve your Keyword Rankings on SERP’s
Now is the time to assess your site’s analytics and traffic. This will indicate what is working and what isn’t (so far). Along with this, research on keyword conversion and on-site improvement opportunities should be explored. It’s important to keep the date range short for this research. Any recent changes you may have made may influence your findings. Using your keyword research, develop your in-house writing team. Training in on-page SEO needs to be done in order to guarantee proper utilization of this new research and to implement the next strategic step. There are plenty of resources available for free on the Web to assist in training of staff concerning SEO writing and link strategies.
Month 4 – Social Media Optimization Strategy
Your team should gather to form a social media marketing strategy. Some questions the team should address as they formulate their strategy:
- Will we be using multimedia?
- What is our brand message? Will it be different for each social media outlet or should it be streamlined?
- Should we have a presence in local business networks and sites?
- What, if any, kinds of discounts and contests should we offer?
Your company’s strategy can be as complex as you want it to be. The more details identified, the better the plan. Implement this plan immediately, and post your initial blog articles.
Month 5 – Capture Your Leads and Convert Them to Long-time Customers
At this point, it is time to convert your visitors into leads and leads into sales. What is your capture and converting strategy? Compelling offers and landing pages for each with funnel your visitors. These offers will create a buzz and lead others to your site. These leads should be nurtured within a timely manner and with the best possible customer service. Whether you see results or not, check your analytics. These will indicate what and where changes need to be made.
Month 6 – Check Your Results and ROI
This is the month to gather your data and return on investment. The kinds of data you want to track and analyze:
- Trends and causes
- Traffic
- Inbound links
- SERP results
- Page conversion
As a team, go over the results and make any corrections or updates to your strategy. Continue to develop your Inbound Marketing skills as a team. Schedule regular meetings to go over data and make necessary changes.